Onward The Sailors Cry
by QuickSilverFox3
Summary: Dumbledore is lost and confused after his fight with Grindlewald and the death of his sister. So he goes looking for answers.


**School: Hogwarts Year 2**

**Theme: Commas= ****Use commas to offset appositives from the rest of the sentence; Use a comma when the first word of the sentence is freestanding, for example, "yes" or "no."; Use commas to separate items in a series.**

**Prompt: [plot point] Racial Discrimination**

**WC: 796**

"What do you want?"

The question was soft, barely audible above the waves crashing against the rocky shore. Albus steadied himself against the cliff face, a shiver rasping up his spine at the sensation of slick stone, and stared out into the depths.

"I have come to request an audience with you," Albus called, eyes scanning the ever-changing waves.

There! A shadow in the water, moving against the push and pull of the waves, dipping deeper beneath the weight of his gaze. Months of research, eyesight blurring from exhaustion, and hours of walking, legs burning with the effort, had finally led him here.

"Speak."

Albus waited, one heartbeat and then two, scanning the sea for any sign of the siren he had come to visit.

"I—"

He broke off. Now that the moment was here, the words were tangled in his mind, sentences threads so tightly wound together he was helpless to find where to start.

"Do you want power? Yes, magical, physical, or mental? No? No, then gold? I have given men mountains of gold, towers of coins, and glistening jewels the size of their heads. Then I retrieved it all from their bloated corpses."

"I don't want that."

"Love? The love of a woman, the adoration of a man, or perhaps both?"

"No!"

The word came out too sharp, too fast, too loud. Albus' heart hammered against his ribs, stealing his breath. His own voice echoed off the cliff face, becoming distorted noise and then lost in the steady roar of the waves.

Bile rose in his throat, old fears threatening to strangle him. How could the creature tell? He'd tried so hard to hide it at school. Every interaction was monitored, every casual word analysed, and each scenario studied and accounted for. No-one could know.

"What gives you the right to speak to me like that?" Albus snapped, mind whirling, old beliefs rearing their heads beneath their shrouds.

"The right?"

The siren's voice was deathly quiet, no longer the gentle murmur of water lapping at the shore. It was the silence before a storm, the whisper of a knife between ribs, the soft sigh that had escaped Adrianne's lips as she tumbled to the ground.

With a snarl, the siren pushed themself out of the water, curved teeth bared.

Albus _knew_ they were a creature, he knew they were dangerous, but he hadn't realised what that entailed. Muscles rippled beneath scaly, striped skin as sea water ran down the spines on their back. The webbing beneath each digit on their hands was paper thin, almost delicate except for the sharp claws, perfectly designed to gut.

"I have every right, wizard. My words are something your kind can never take from me," the siren growled. The gills on their neck fluttered with every word, a strange choked quality to their speech, and all the fight deflated out of Albus.

He felt stretched too thin like a piece of parchment that had been erased too many times, now translucent and fragile.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You don't know."

The siren's tail flicked sending up a fine mist of salt water, rainbow coloured by the sun. Albus licked his lips and tasted salt.

"Yes, I am a siren. Yes, I am classed as a creature by your ministry. So this means I am regulated by _your_ laws."

Albus nodded, cautiously kneeling down on the rocks, feeling the water soak into his trousers and cause him to shiver. He was closer to the siren's teeth now, but the other seemed to almost preen at the respect, spines rattling along their back.

"You aren't a native to this island. Neither am I. The difference is I cannot go home, while you can travel freely."

"Why?"

"Yes, how very like a wizard. Always asking why," the siren spat.

"There is a war. You know this, I can tell. So there are travel restrictions and so I—" The siren raised his tail, fanning out the fin to reveal the heavy metal tag stabbed through the thickest part, skin grown back around it with the silvery pale growth of a scar, "—have to obey."

"My apologies," Albus breathed, mind spinning. He'd never thought, didn't think— What else had he been blind to while Grindlewald had filled his head with thoughts of wizard superiority?

"Ask your question and let me sleep."

Albus stared helplessly into the siren's cold eyes. He had come here wanting to know, needing to know, who killed Adriana. He had convinced himself it was Grindlewald, couldn't stop seeing his cloak billowing behind him as he ran. But there was always that doubt. He couldn't go through with this.

"How can I make things better?"

The siren laughed, head tipped back.

"Children are the future. Start there."


End file.
